Euro Championship ticket tout laws criticised by police chief
NEW laws aimed at tackling ticket touts during next year’s European Championships in Glasgow could create accountability issues, the head of a police body has said.
Callum Steele, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation (SPF), told MSPs there are a number of issues with the Uefa European Championship (Scotland) Bill, including the handing over of “pseudo police powers to nonpolice officers”.
The proposed law, which will cover the Games at Hampden next summer, is designed to ban ticket touting and constrict advertisers near fan zones in the city to just those sponsoring the event.
The bill sets out the appointment of “enforcement officers” to enforce the law, who are intended to be members of Glasgow City Council’s trading standards team.
Mr Steele told the Culture Committee that powers handed to enforcement officers in the current form of the bill create “accountability issues”.
He said: “In general the SPF thinks it’s very important to maintain the distinction between police officers and others who may be afforded some form of police-like powers.
“Not least because of the unique role police officers hold in society and the standards to which they are held to account.
“Beyond that, we do have some concerns that there are fairly extensive powers afforded to non-warranted individuals who demand then the support and assistance of police officers.
“If this legislation is passed, enforcement officers could be carrying out the same actions as a police officer, while being held to a different set of accountability standards.”
Searches of people, homes, and the use of force would need to have a police officer present under the bill’s terms. THE high street has suffered its worst September in eight years as spending buckled under the weight of Brexit uncertainty, falling footfall and big-name closures, figures suggest.
In-store sales plummeted by 3.1 per cent on a year ago after an already weak 2.7% drop, making it the poorest September since 2011, according to BDO’s High Street Sales Tracker.
The lifestyle category suffered a 5.4% drop, its worst performance since the height of the recession in November 2008.